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Pilot
Pilot is the first episode of Glee. The episode covers the formation of New Directions and introduces most of the main characters of the series. Its title is a reference to the fact that this episode was Glee's pilot episode. It is written by the series creators, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck and Ian Brennan. It is directed by Ryan Murphy also. Pilot The start of the school day finds the Cheerios cheer squad being led relentlessly through their practice by their merciless coach Sue Sylvester. Meanwhile, the football team surrounds the stylishly weary Kurt. After Finn allows Kurt to remove his Marc Jacobs jacket and manbag, the team unceremoniously tosses him into the dumpster. Spanish teacher Will Schuester eyes the school trophy case, in particular, a tribute to former Glee coach Lillian Adler. Later, after a slow-paced Spanish class, Will sits in the teacher's lounge with germaphobe Emma Pillsbury, the football coach Ken Tanaka, and a caustic Sue. Will learns that the glee teacher, Sandy Ryerson was fired. Then, he visits Principal Figgins and asks to take over the glee club. Kurt, the stuttering Tina, and Mercedes, the diva, audition for a hopeful Will. Talented Rachel Berry purposefully and confidently auditions, in spite of her private revelation that she was the one who got Sandy fired for inappropriate touching. After a disastrous first rehearsal, Rachel is upset that Will has cast Artie as the lead, especially since Artie is wheelchair bound. Will and Rachel talk and she tells him she needs a male lead who can follow her musically and physically. Also, she reveals that she is tired of being hated and laughed at, and doesn't want to make a fool out of herself. Will meets with Principal Figgins, who tells him that he can't use the auditorium anymore, because Alcoholics Anonymous needs it for meetings and will pay rental fees. Will and Figgins strike a bargain: The Glee club can use the auditorium until Regionals. If they do well, they get to keep the auditorium. If they bomb, they will give it up. Figgins agrees, on the condition that Will runs detention - for free. Terri Schuester is exasperated at her work because her employee Howard Bamboo, who's dyslexic, can't fold a fitted sheet. Will surprises her with a roast beef sandwich and news that he'll be working late for awhile. He then runs into Sandy who is shopping for a toilet seat cover. Sandy tells Will that he's thrilled to be out of school and that he's making more money re-selling medical marijuana to other teachers. Sandy slips Will a sample packet saying, "First one's free." At school, Sue and Will talk. He asks her if some of the Cheerios want to join Glee. She then explains the school status quo to Will, noting that kids in Glee are "sub-basement." Sue tells Will that kids like to know what they are. Emma gets gum on her shoe while walking to school. Will passes by and stops to help her, and Emma advises Will to make Glee more popular by getting some of the popular kids to sign up. With help from the football coach, Will talks to the jocks about Glee and puts up an audition sheet. Later, after only getting joke names written on the sign-up sheet, a dejected Will hears singing coming from the boys' locker room. Following the sound, Will finds Finn Hudson singing in the shower. A desperate Will blackmails Finn into joining glee by telling him that marijuana was found in his locker, producing the marijuana supplied to him by Sandy. Despite Finn's protests, he ultimately agrees to join Glee so he doesn't upset his mother. Finn privately reveals that his father died in Iraq. His love for music came from the Emerald Dreams lawn guy, who his mother hooked up with when he was young. After the lawn guy dumped his mother, Finn resolved to do whatever it took to make his mother proud. In rehearsals, Finn and Rachel sing the solos in You're The One That I Want from Grease. Will is hopeful that the glee club will get better and gain more people. That night, Will and Terri work on a puzzle in her craft room. He asks her to chaperone a field trip with the Glee club to see last year's winner of Nationals, Vocal Adrenaline. They argue about how she doesn't have to time to help. Will confronts Terri with her Pottery Barn shopping habit, opening the craft closet to reveal three mahogany toilet brush holders. She defensively tells him that there is nothing wrong with wanting nice things. At school, Will posts a sign-up sheet in the teacher's lounge for chaperones for the field trip; Emma quickly signs up. At football practice, Finn lies to teammate and friend Noah Puckerman about missing Saturday practice, telling him that his mother is having surgery to have her prostate removed. While at the other school to see their potential rivals perform, Rachel makes her play for Finn. He tells her that he already has a girlfriend, the president of the Celibacy Club, Quinn Fabray. Emma and Will share a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while Will confides in Emma about his marital problems. in Rehab]]Vocal Adrenaline, the Glee Club's rival and last year's winner at Nationals, perform Rehab, to a rousingstanding ovation. Will, Emma, Artie, Mercedes, Tina, Kurt, Rachel, and Finn sit dumbfounded by the talent of the group. At school, Finn is surrounded by his football teammates. Puck tells him that women don't have prostates. Discovered, Finn admits the lie and is paintballed by the team. At home, Will is surprised by Terri, who announces that she is pregnant. Thrilled about the pregnancy, but worried about how he will provide for a family on a teacher's salary, Will tells the Glee Club the next day that he's leaving school in two weeks. Finn wonders if he no longer has to be in Glee if Will is leaving. In the Director's Cut, Will goes to the auditorium and sees a guitar. He sits in a chair and starts to sing Leaving on a Jet Plane. While the song is playing, Emma can be seen looking at a Thunderclap yearbook, where she draws a heart around Will's head in a photo of him winning the prize of the Teacher of the Year, confirming her crush in him. Rachel vows to continue on without Will. Will fills out a job application for an accounting firm. Emma tells him that she's made an appointment for him in the career center, which he agrees to go to. Rachel confronts Finn about missing Glee practice, and tells him that he can't worry about what other people think about him. The football team meet up with Finn with a surprise; Artie, who the team have trapped in a porta-potty. Puck tells Finn that he gets to do the first flip of the porta-potty, but Finn lets Artie out and tells the team that he's going back to Glee. Over Puck's protests, Finn tells him that both the football team and Glee need him to win, so he'll do both. While pushing Artie to practice, he sees the Emerald Green guy spraying the football field singing to Don't Stop Believin'. Finn apologizes to the Glee Club for leaving and then organizes them. Artie agrees to get the jazz band to play for them at rehearsals, Mercedes will do costumes, and Rachel will choreograph. Emma shows Will a tape of himself with the 1993 Glee Club at Nationals, performing (with him doing the lead) the mashup That's the Way (I Like It)/(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty by KC and The Sunshine Band. He admits that it was the greatest moment of his life, and he knew who he was in the world, at that moment. Will tells her that he feels the same way now, knowing that he has a baby on the way, and that he must provide for his family. Emma tells him that a life worth living must be one that he's passionate about. As Will leaves the school, he hears the kids singing Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. Following the sound, he steps into the auditorium to discover that the Glee club are actually getting really good. Will makes his decision - to stay and help the kids get to Nationals. Unknown to Will, an envious and competitive Sue Sylvester and the Cheerios Quinn and Santana watch from above. Puck also watches from the entrance, observing Finn. Guest Stars Guest Cast *Stephen Tobolowsky as Sandy Ryerson *Patrick Gallagher as Ken Tanaka *Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins *Romy Rosemont as Carole Hudson *Ben Bledsoe as Hank Saunders *Justin Gaston as Football Player Co-Stars *Kent Avenido as Howard Bamboo *Jane Galloway Heitz as Lillian Adler *Melanie Henderson as Barb *Aaron Hendry as Darren *Jerry Phillips as Young Finn *Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez Trivia *The opening title-card was introduced. *First and last time Coach Sylvester calls Emma by her real name. Other times she calls her Irma, etc. *Every Glee student, minus Artie, had an audition. Every song that the Glee students performed during their audition was actually the song that actress/actor sang to get cast on Glee, with one exception. Jenna Ushkowitz sang Waiting for Life to Begin during her Glee audition, but because she messed up the verse she had to choose another song. *When Rachel auditions for the Glee Club, she sings the song On My Own from Les Misérables. Lea Michele, who plays the role of Rachel, had performed in the Broadway production of the show as Young Cosette. *Because Dianna Agron (Quinn) joined the cast just a day before the start of the filming, her character doesn't have many lines in Pilot. *During an interview, Lea and Amber said that Glee originally had a theme song that they never ended up using. Lea and Amber didn't sing it because they said FOX still has the rights to it. *We are first aware of Tina's stutter when she signs up for Glee club, signing it: T-T-T-Tina. *When Tina signs Artie's name, she is seen writing it Arty. This could just be Tina spelling his name wrong though. It is also a coincidence that in the original script, Artie was actually spelt Arty. *In a deleted scene, you see Quinn and Santana bothering Rachel in the bathroom. You can see that the credits are not sorted in alphabetical order as it has always been the main cast. Amber Riley was first then Jenna Ushkowitz and follow by Chris Colfer. *The episode achieved 9.619 million viewers on its first broadcast, and 4.2 million when the director's cut was aired. *This is the episode with the most songs in it. In Pilot, there are 20 songs. However, of these twenty songs, only four were released. *The original script can be viewed HERE *In the original script Quinn was named Liz. *In the original script, there was an Indian kid in New Directions named Rajeesh. He was replaced with Kurt Hummel after Chris Colfer was added to the cast. *Finn and Rachel sing Grease's 'You're The One That I Want' in this episode. This song was used instead of Grease's 'Summer Lovin' which was sung by Mercedes and Sam in Yes/No (as evidenced in the original script) *Rachel was originally going to sing 'Look At Me, I'm Sarah Dee!' instead of 'On My Own' (as also evidenced in the original script) *Mercedes was going to be Rajeesh's love interest (as seen in the original script) *The original script contains many scenes that ended up being in this episode, as well as many scenes that weren't. Some scenes were cut from the original script. Songs *'"You Can Do It/You Keep Me Hanging On"': by Ice Cube/Diana Ross &The Supremes. Danced to by the Cheerios. *'"Shining Star"': by Earth Wind & Fire. Background song *'"Chewing Gum"': by Annie. Background song *'"Where Is Love?"': from Oliver!. Sung by Hank Saunders and Sandy Ryerson *'"Respect"': by Aretha Franklin. Sung by Mercedes Jones *'"Mr. Cellophane"': from Chicago. Sung by Kurt Hummel *'"I Kissed a Girl"': by Katy Perry. Sung by Tina Cohen-Chang *'"On My Own"': from Les Miserables. Sung by Rachel Berry *'"Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat"': from Guys and Dolls. Sung by New Directions *"A Fifth Of Beethoven": by The Swingle Swingers. Background song *'"Can't Fight This Feeling"': by REO Speedwagon. Sung by Finn Hudson *'"Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'"': by Journey. Sung by Finn and Darren *'"You're The One That I Want"': from Grease. Sung by New Directions *'"Soul Bossa Nova"': by Quincy Jones. ''Background song *"''Flight Of The Bumblebee": by'' Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov''. Background Song *'"Rehab"': by Amy Winehouse. Sung by Vocal Adrenaline *'"Leaving on a Jet Plane": by John Denver. Sung by Will Schuester'' *"Moonlight Sonata"' by ''Ludwig Van Beethoven. Background song *'"That's the Way (I Like It)/(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty": '''by ''KC and the Sunshine Band. Sung by the 1993 William McKinley High School Glee Club *'"Don't Stop Believin'"': by'' Journey''. Sung by New Directions. (Main Song) Errors During Can't Fight This Feeling, Finn's chest alternates from a normal appearance to looking extremely red and blotchy as the camera angles change. This is due to the high temperature of the water, described as "scalding" by Cory Monteith in the "Behind the Pilot" episode commentary. Also Ryan Murphy said it took "hours and hours" to film that one scene, due to multiple takes. In the Extended Version of the Pilot, in the first scene, when young Will Schuester is about to perform with his Glee Club That's the Way (I Like It)/(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty while the stage is getting ready it says '1993 Glee Club Invitational', but when the kids are getting ready with their coach Lillian Adler she says clearly 'Welcome to Nationals'. Quotes Navigational Category:Episodes Category:Season One Episodes